In a production process at a wellbore, formation fluid containing hydrocarbons and water is drawn from a downhole formation into a production tubing and lifted uphole to a surface location. Inorganic scale-forming constituents such as calcium, magnesium, etc. are often present in the water and hydrocarbons. These scales tend to precipitate at various locations on the tubing, eventually limiting production from the wellbore. In order to prevent the formation of the scale, scale inhibitor is pumped into the fluid at a downhole location at a level determined from measurements of water sample chemistry and operation parameters of a production process.
Due to technical difficulties, it is impractical to place a scale sensor in a production well. However, scale measurements at a surface location do not take into account differences between the environmental conditions downhole vs. at a surface location that have an effect on the risk of scale precipitation. Therefore, there is a need to be able to determine scale parameters downhole that account for differences in environmental conditions between surface and downhole locations.